Programmed cell death, referred to as apoptosis, plays an indispensable role in the development and maintenance of tissue homeostasis within all multicellular organisms (Raff, Nature 356: 397-400, 1992). Genetic and molecular analysis from nematodes to humans has indicated that the apoptotic pathway of cellular suicide is highly conserved (Hengartner and Horvitz, Cell 76: 1107-1114, 1994). In addition to being essential for normal development and maintenance, apoptosis is important in the defense against viral infection and in preventing the emergence of cancer.
Diverse intrinsic death signals emanating from multiple subcellular locales all induce the release of cytochrome c from mitochondria to activate Apaf-1 and result in effector caspase activation. Proteins in the BCL-2 family are major regulators of the commitment to programmed cell death as well as executioners of death signals at the mitochondrion. Members of this family include both pro- and anti-apoptotic proteins and share homology in up to four conserved regions termed BCL-2 homology (BH) 1-4 domains (Adams and Cory, 1998). The family can be divided into three main sub-classes. The anti-apoptotic proteins, which include BCL-2 and BCL-XL, are all “multidomain,” sharing homology throughout all four BH domains. However, the pro-apoptotic proteins can be further subdivided and include multidomain proteins, such as BAX and BAK, which possess sequence homology in BH1-3 domains. The more distantly related “BH3-only” proteins are to date all pro-apoptotic and share sequence homology within the amphipathic α-helical BH3 region, which is required for their apoptotic function (Chittenden et al., 1995; O'Connor et al., 1998; Wang et al., 1996; Zha et al., 1997).
Multidomain pro-apoptotic proteins such as BAX and BAK upon receipt of death signals participate in executing mitochondrial dysfunction. In viable cells, these proteins exist as monomers. In response to a variety of death stimuli, however, inactive BAX, which is located in the cytosol or loosely attached to membranes, inserts deeply into the outer mitochondrial membrane as a homo-oligomerized multimer (Eskes et al., 2000; Gross et al., 1998; Wolter et al., 1997). Inactive BAK resides at the mitochondrion where it also undergoes an allosteric conformational change in response to death signals, which includes homo-oligomerization (Griffiths et al., 1999; Wei et al., 2000). Cells deficient in both BAX and BAK are resistant to a wide variety of death stimuli that emanate from multiple locations within the cell (Wei et al., 2001).
The BH3-only molecules constitute the third subset of this family and include BID, NOXA, PUMA, BIK, BIM and BAD (Kelekar and Thompson, 1998). These proteins share sequence homology only in the amphipathic α-helical BH3 region which mutation analysis indicated is required in pro-apoptotic members for their death activity. Moreover, the BH3-only proteins require this domain to demonstrate binding to “multidomain” BCL-2 family members. Multiple binding assays, including yeast two-hybrid, co-immunoprecipitation from detergent solubilized cell lysates and in-vitro pull down experiments indicate that individual BH3-only molecules display some selectivity for multidomain BCL-2 members (Boyd et al., 1995; O'Connor et al., 1998; Oda et al., 2000; Wang et al., 1996; Yang et al., 1995). The BID protein binds pro-apoptotic BAX and BAK as well as anti-apoptotic BCL-2 and BCL-XL (Wang et al., 1996; Wei et al., 2000). In contrast, BAD, NOXA and BIM as intact molecules display preferential binding to anti-apoptotic members (Boyd et al., 1995; O'Connor et al., 1998; Oda et al., 2000; Yang et al., 1995).